CITY EYES PLANS FOR “GATEWAY” BRIDGE

Council awards $300K for design of project to link Palomar College to Sprinter station

Every semester, students on foot, transit riders, bicyclists and motorists all converge at Palomar College’s main entrance on West Mission Road.

Two years from now, that mashup could ease with the construction of a proposed 200-foot pedestrian bridge stretching from the college entrance and going above Mission and the adjacent Sprinter light-rail tracks to a spot near the Sprinter station.

Plans for the bridge, which San Marcos City Engineer Mike Edwards said could serve as “an iconic piece of city infrastructure,” took a step forward last week when the San Marcos City Council awarded a $300,000 bridge design contract to San Diego-based Simon Wong Engineering.

Edwards said those designs must incorporate lighting, security, landscaping and aesthetic features. They are expected to be completed in about 12 months. The designs will be subject to City Council approval, and must pass muster with the North County Transit District.

If built, the bridge would have two connected spans, one over West Mission and one over the rail tracks, with elevator and stairway landings on both sides, according to a city report.

Construction could start about four months after the design work is complete, and last “a little less than a year,” Edwards estimated.

Besides improving traffic and pedestrian safety on West Mission, the bridge would connect to an area just south of the college. The area is now industrial with a few open dirt lots. San Marcos hopes to transform it into a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.

Building the pedestrian bridge was a condition of the City Council’s 2007 approval of the Palomar Station mixed-use development. That yet-to-be-built three-story project, which includes plans for commercial space and 370 residences, would sit just south of the Sprinter station on each side of Armorlite Drive.

Earlier this month, the city decided to seek a $2 million regional grant to turn two-lane Armorlite into a corridor with “street parking, bike facilities, pedestrian pathways, landscaping and traffic calming measures,” according to a city report.

Grant money will also play a prominent role. While the city required a private developer to build the bridge, city officials must manage its progress because they won a $782,000 federal grant to pay for part of it.

The bridge requirement carried over when Newport Beach-based Integral Communities bought the Palomar Station property in December 2010, Edwards said.

The engineer added that the city has contributed $100,000 in staff time on the bridge project and secured an $800,000 “private sector funding commitment” from the private corporation Palomar Station LLC.

The design work will give the city a refined cost estimate for the bridge, Edwards said. The city, federal and private money should cover most of the bridge’s cost, he noted.

Edwards said the city is heavily involved because the federal grant requires it to be, and because “we wanted to make sure (the bridge) would be done right.”

Edwards added that it would be San Marcos’ first pedestrian bridge, a structure that could serve as “a gateway” to the college and a revitalized neighborhood.

Not everyone’s a fan of the bridge plans, however.

Kaylen Latta, a Palomar College student, said there are simpler, less expensive solutions that seem like they would improve traffic on Mission. One, she offered, is removing a black metal gate from the sidewalk on Mission’s south side, a few yards from the Sprinter station. The gate tends to bottleneck pedestrian traffic.

“The bridge seems a little ridiculous,” said Latta, 19, who said she’s studying child development, calling it a costly solution.

Chris Rogers, 18, also a Palomar College student, said he supports the span for safety reasons, noting cars “keep going by” at the crossing even at red lights.

Edwards, the city engineer, said given the extra crush of traffic expected for the area, the bridge plans are a “proactive” step.